Even criminals can experience Fahrvergnugen
Posted: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 3:00 AM by Allison Linn
Filed Under:
Cars and trucks
Apparently the new line of Volkswagen cars is so cool that people don’t want to steal them.
In a recent ad for the German carmaker, a suspicious-looking guy walks down the street looking for a car to heist, finds an unlocked convertible Volkswagen -- its key conveniently stashed behind the visor -- and takes off.
Pretty soon, he finds himself stopping for pedestrians and waving at the elderly, and before you know it he’s turned around and decided to return the car to its rightful owner.
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| vw.com |
“When you get into a Volkswagen, it gets into you,” a voiceover says.
Laura Soave, marketing manager with Volkswagen of America, said the implication is meant to be that the car is so inherently good, it’ll make you a better person.
“The vehicle itself changed his mind,” she said.
Perhaps that’s what happened, but the cynical person might wonder whether all that happy-go-lucky contact with strangers just made our ne’er-do-well car thief feel uncomfortable. Maybe your average car thief wants to be seen as the dark, handsome bad guy, not the man who stops diligently so children can safely cross the street.
(The really cynical person will actually wonder, don’t people who leave their car doors unlocked, with the key inside, practically deserve to have their vehicles stolen?)
Soave admitted that the spot made her legal department a bit nervous, but she said the company has found that traditional car ads touting things like monthly car payments or engine power don’t resonate with its customers.
“What the Volkswagen customer is looking for out of the Volkswagen is an emotional message,” she said.
Perhaps more notable to music fans, this is one in a series of VW ads featuring music from the latest Wilco album, “Sky Blue Sky.” The band’s delicate sound is perfect for the highly stylized ads, and members of Wilco have said that they see such ads as a way to get their music out in an age when traditional radio play is growing scarce. Still, one has to wonder, what would Woody Guthrie think?
Watch the ad here, or click here to see a longer version.
